The Fish Tank: Sweet and Spicy Viewer Decks (March 27-April 2, 2022)

Welcome back to The Fish Tank, the series where we sneak a peek at sweet viewer-submitted decks and maybe, with our powers combined, turn them into real, fun, playable lists! This week, we focus on Standard and Modern! What spice did you all send in? Let's find out. Oh yeah, if you want your deck considered for next week's edition of The Fish Tank, leave a link in the comments, or you can email it to me at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.

Standard

First up in Standard, we've got a really sweet Storm-ish spellslinger deck from Jay of the Summer. Here's the plan: Level up Sorcerer Class so all of our creatures tap to add a mana for spells. Play some number of Poppet Stitchers and Whispering Wizards, which make tokens whenever we cast an instant or sorcery. Play First Day of Class to give every creature that enters the battlefield this turn haste, which should allow us to have a huge storm-style combo turn as we cast card-draw spells like Expressive Iteration and Discover the Impossible, make a bunch of hasty tokens that can tap to add mana, and eventually build an unbeatable board of tokens while drawing through our deck. Things get even crazier if we can Mystic Reflection a Poppet Stitcher or Whispering Wizard, with each spell we cast generating mana in the form of tokens! Is First Day of Poppet Class good? I really have no idea, but it does look super fun to play, and it should be able to do some pretty crazy things if we can keep our payoffs on the battlefield!

Dragonspark Reactor is a really interesting card. In theory, it can deal the full 20 damage directly to the opponent, but for this to work, it needs to stick on the battlefield, and we need to make a bunch of artifacts. WonderousIdeals has a really fun way to build around the artifact: Treasure tokens! Between Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Prosperous Innkeeper, Atsushi, the Blazing Sky, Goldspan Dragon, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Old Gnawbone, and Xorn to double up our Treasures, the deck has a ton of ways to make Treasures, which happen to be artifacts, so each one will add a counter to Dragonspark Reactor. In theory, we can make enough artifacts for Dragonspark Reactor to become lethal by itself, although in practice, we probably won't need to get 20 counters on Reactor because our random Treasure creatures can chip in for damage. In fact, the deck looks like it has a solid enough midrange plan that it should be able to win without Dragonspark Reactor if necessary. But having a 10- or 20-damage burn spell slowly building up on the battlefield does offer a really solid way to close out the game if we can't get there with creatures!

Modern

Meanwhile, in Modern, Staxi-Boi is living up to their name with Kaheera Prison. You might know that one of my all-time favorite Modern decks was Mono-Red Prison, which used Simian Spirit Guide to drop a lock piece on Turn 1. Sadly, Simian Spirit Guide itself got banned, but Staxi_Boi found a replacement in Chancellor of the Tangle. While not as good as the Monkey because it only adds mana if it starts out in our opening hand, Chancellor of the Tangle does offer an extra mana on Turn 1 when things go well, which will allow us to drop two-mana lock pieces like Chalice of the Void or Suppression Field / Leonin Arbiter to hate on fetch lands as early as Turn 2. We back this up with good removal like Ghostly Prison and then eventually win the game with Voice of Resurgence or Kaheera, the Orphanguard, or even by casting Chancellor of the Tangle! While consistency might be a bit of a problem, in the right matchups and with the right hand, the deck potentially can lock the opponent out of the game from Turn 1!

We know that cheating Griselbrand into play quickly is a good way to win in Modern. Normally, we see Neoform with Allosaurus Rider as the primary way to get a Turn 2 Griselbrand. But Sal123 has another plan: use Pact of the Titan (or lands like Mutavault or Khalni Garden) to make a creature and then use rituals like Desperate Ritual and Infernal Plunge to cast an Indomitable Creativity or Transmogrify to get Griselbrand as early as Turn 1 (although more likely Turn 2 or 3). At this point, the deck wins more or less like the Neoform deck does, by drawing its entire library with Griselbrand and using lifegain like Nourishing Shoal and Life Goes On until we can throw a massive Lightning Storm at the opponent's face for lethal. In theory, the combo only requires two pieces (a way to make a creature and  either Indomitable Creativity or Transmogrify), both of which have redundant pieces, so consistency shouldn't be a problem. Still, there is one big drawback to the deck: targeted removal on the creature we are trying to Indomitable Creativity or Transmogrify will fizzle the combo and likely will leave us without much of a chance to rebuild (and if we cast a Pact of the Titan, will almost assuredly leave us dead on our upkeep because we won't be able to pay for the Pact). Basically, GriselPact should be consistent, fast, and powerful, although it's certainly a high-risk, glass cannon–style combo deck where something as simple as a Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt can ruin our day.

Last but not least, we have some sweet Modern jank from joemanajoe: a deck built around Eon Hub! Eon Hub is one of the most unique cards in Magic—once it is on the battlefield, there is no longer an upkeep step. How can we take advantage of not having an upkeep? There are a bunch of ways. We can cast cards like Pact of Negation, Pact of the Titan, and Slaughter Pact without worrying about paying for them because their payment takes place during our next upkeep, which no longer exists. Suspend becomes hard removal, Delay becomes an upgraded counterspell, Phyrexian Soulgorger doesn't have a cumulative upkeep (which is also paid during our upkeep), and Eldrazi Monument doesn't make us sacrifice a creature. Basically, our deck becomes incredibly powerful if we can get Eon Hub on the battlefield. The only problem is that the deck will be super clunky if we don't have Eon Hub. Thankfully, Fabricate helps us find Eon Hub, and Etherium Sculptor and Grand Architect can help ramp us into it. Is Eon Hub competitive? Very likely not, but the deck is cheap (almost free on Magic Online) and seems like a really fun casual option. Oh yeah, make sure to let me know in the comments if you've got some ideas for upgrades that would work with the Eon Hub plan—it's about time we revisit Eon Hub.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Make sure to let us know in the comments if you have some idea for how to improve these decks, and if you want your own deck considered for a future Fish Tank, leave a link there as well (or email it to me at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com). As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.